State v. Jerrel C.J.

2005

Venue: WI SC
Facts: McDonald's gets robbed; probably an inside job. $3,590 stolen: that's a lot of McMuffins. Anyway, Jerrell gets arrested at hs home, taken to an interrogation room, and questioned for 5.5 hours, in spite of requests to call his parents.
Posture: Motion to suppress his written confession is denied. Tried and adjudged delinquent PTAC. Post-conviction motion for a new trial on the theory that the confession was unreliable is also denied. Ct. App. affirms.
Issue: Three of them:
  1. Was the confession involuntary?
  2. Should there be a per se rule barring any confessions from children under 16 who haven't been allowed to talk with a parent or interested adult?
  3. Should all juvenile interrogations be recorded?
Holding:
  1. Yes
  2. No
  3. Yes
Rule: A defendant's statements are voluntary if they are the product of a free and unconstrained will. Also, the court can set rules of procedure for lower courts.
Reasoning: Finding coercive police conduct is a prerequisite for finding involuntariness. The coercion need not be egregious in order to count. We look at the totality of the circumstances: the conduct, the suspect's age, education, and intelligence.

It's the state's version to prove that a confession was voluntary, and this was a conspicuously unequal confrontation.
Dicta: Abrahamson, concurring: I violently agree with this! For 26 pages! And I'd even adopt the proposed per se rule.